Drawing A Blank
by Perplexical
Summary: She woke up with no memory of what happened, with a cut on her palm and a ballpoint pen. What in Hades was going on? An different ending to Blood of Olympus.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first ever story, so be kind, please! Feedback is always appreciated.**

She woke up confused. She was on a slab of stone, she could tell that much, but it was too dark to see anything. Tentatively, she swung her legs around the side of the stone slab and let her feet dangle for a few seconds as she tried to remember what had happened.

She couldn't remember much. She knew that she had been in a battle, with the help of others whom she could not think of. She knew her name, where she was from, but the rest was a complete blank.

She dropped to the floor a foot below her. It was also cold stone. She became aware of the cold and wrapped one arm around her midsection. The other she put out in an attempt to keep from running into anything. There was a steady trickle of blood from her left palm, but there were more serious things to worry about.

She bumped into a cold wall. She felt around for a light or a door, but there was nothing. She slowly moved away from where she had woken up, feeling up and down the walls. She couldn't tell where the ceiling was, or how long the chamber might be. She didn't know where she was, which meant she couldn't come up with a fool-proof plan to get out, and that thought made her start to panic.

She shook her head as soon as that thought came into her head. Panic wouldn't help here. Just think through this logically. Maybe there's a hidden door somewhere, or a hole in the ceiling. Not that that would help. She would never be able to reach it.

For some reason, the thought of a hole in the ceiling made her feel strange, as if she had already done this before. But that was ridiculous. Why would she ever have been stuck underground and gotten out through the ceiling? She tried to push this thought to the back of her mind and continued along the wall, which was completely smooth, except for the ivy climbing it.

From what she could tell, she was in an underground cave or passage. She couldn't find any end to either side, so she assumed it was either a passage or a huge cavern. She started to speed up a little, getting impatient with how little progress she was making.

Her foot hit a loose stone, and she fell, hard. Her ankle screamed in protest, but such a fall shouldn't have hurt it that much. Maybe it was still sore from some other wound. But she didn't have time to think about that. She grimaced and reached for her ankle. Her hand hit the stone she had tripped on, but it was too smooth to be a stone. It was too long, too. Too thin.

She frowned and picked it up. A ballpoint pen. But why would there be a pen in here? It made no sense, and it was driving her crazy. She uncapped the pen curiously. Nothing happened. Of course. Why would anything happen?

As she put the cap back on and shoved it deep in her pocket, she felt a sense of dread. She wasn't sure why, but the pen seemed like it should hold some meaning that she couldn't remember. It was just on the tip of her tongue. What was going on?

She shakily got to her feet and found the wall again. She steadied herself on it before moving again. After a few minutes, she felt a strange symbol on the wall. She stopped moving and felt it carefully. It wasn't English, she could tell that, but something else entirely. Another language, maybe?

When she fitted the palm of her hand on it, it started to glow. She shrieked and stumbled back, falling over again. The light was blinding after being in the dark for so long. She covered her eyes and squinted, trying to make out what it was, but it was still too bright b the time it faded away.

Silence. The symbol was still burnt into the back of her eyes. It looked familiar, but she couldn't place it.

She had to restrain herself from kicking the wall. All this sudden amnesia stuff was really getting on her nerves, for obvious reasons. She took a deep breath, and got to her feet. She was determined not to let this get in the way of finding out what in the gods' names was going on.

Suddenly, a huge crack echoed through the cavern. She flinched and instinctively crouched, reaching for something at her hip which was not there. A deep rumbling filled the cave, and she glanced around frantically, trying to see where it was coming from.

A shaft of light hit the ground a few feet in front of her. She jumped slightly and looked up, where a hole had opened. Through it, she could see clouds, grey, foreboding clouds that covered the entire sky. She thought she heard shouting, but she was too far away to be sure.

First, how to get out of here. She walked under it and looked around for any way of climbing up. But, of course, there was no random ladder or rope in a corner. She would have to find another way. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. What now? She couldn't jump that high.

Her gaze slid over to the wall next to the hole. It was covered in ivy. No way, she thought. She walked up to it and tentatively tugged on it. It didn't move. She yanked a bit harder, and kept its grip on the wall. She slowly put her weight on it, and it managed to hold her.

Now she has to climb the wall. But, strangely, she feels confident that she's able to do it, despite the fact that the hole is over ten feet above the ground. She grabbed a vine and pulled herself up. It made excellent foot and hand holds as she slowly made her way up. Her shoulders began to burn and her fingers started to cramp, but she gritted her teeth and kept climbing.

When she reached the top of the wall, she realized how far the hole actually was. It was at least a few feet away, but she couldn't give up now.

Without looking down, she readjusted the grip of her left hand and stretched out her right hand. She was just barely able to reach the edge of the hole, but she wasn't able to get a good hold of the top. Nothing else to do but jump.

Jumping was impossible. She wouldn't make it. She knew that, and so she wasn't stupid enough to try.

She jumped anyway. The top of her head skimmed the ceiling, and, as she began to fall, she started thinking, _Why am I doing this? This was such a stupid idea! I'm going to die! Think of another way! I'm too smart to try this!_

Well, she was until she wrapped her hands around the ledge of the hole and hung there, over ten feet above the ground, by one hand. She grunted, half in surprise and half in pain, and slowly pulled herself up.

She swung her leg over the side and heaved herself up and onto solid ground. _Thank the gods!_ she thought in relief. Now she needed to find out where in Hades she was.

She looked around and saw only trees, endless trees in every direction. Great. She still had no idea where she was. And her hand, which had a long gash in it, was surely infected by now. There was nothing to do except rip off a chunk of her shirt and wrap it tightly, which she did.

Ignoring the throbbing ache in her ankle, she set off in the direction where she had heard shouting earlier. As she got closer, she heard distant clashing metal and screaming.

She frowned and jogged a bit faster, ignoring her ankle. It wasn't so bad that she couldn't hurry a little. As the noise got louder and nearer, her heart began to race. She was nervous, more nervous than seemed appropriate.

She crested a hill and stopped dead at the sight that greeted her.

Spread across a large field were hundreds of people. It looked like most of them were teenagers, armed with swords and javelins and bows and arrows. They all had gold or bronze armor on.

What was more frightening was what they were fighting. Monsters, coming in all shapes and sizes, dominated the battlefield (which is what she assumed it was). There were humanoid figures the size of buildings, black dogs the size of trucks, and greenish snake-ladies. There were also giant wolves, and men with only one eye each.

She fell back a step, her head screaming in pain. None of this made sense, but she felt like it should, like she knew all of this, like it was just on the tip of her tongue…

Nervously, she pulled the pen out of her pocket and rolled it around in her hand. As she watched, a huge hound leaped at someone's turned back. Before she could shout a warning, another teenager jumped in and sliced the dog in half. It turned into dust mid-air and fell to the ground.

Her jaw dropped. What the-

It only got worse when she accidentally pulled off the cap of her pen and it morphed into a full sword. She almost dropped it in surprise and squeaked, which was something she felt like she would normally never do. She looked at it in amazement, even as it started to dip. It felt a little long, a little heavy. Maybe it had been made for someone else, and she only had it by accident.

Someone screamed in pain, and she looked up in time to see a boy stabbed through the chest. She froze and watched in horror as he met her eyes and she watched his life drain away. He had shaggy black hair and bright, penetrating eyes. In fact, he closely resembled someone she felt like she knew…

"Annabeth!"

She spun, instinctively raising the sword. She leveled its point at the girl who had been approaching her. The girl had choppy brown hair that had probably started the day in a neat braid, but was now frizzy and tangled with sweat and dirt. Despite the blood and dust caking her features, she looked beautiful. Her blue eyes watched Annabeth. They were wide in… surprise?

"Annabeth!" she repeated. "Where did you come from? We've been looking for you for-"

"How do you know my name?" Annabeth demanded. She took a step back, away from the girl, whose mouth opened slightly.

"Annabeth," she started softly. "What do you mean?"

"How do you know my name?" Annabeth said again, punctuating each word. "What's happening?"

The girl was looking more and more confused, almost scared. "We're- we're fighting Gaea's army. What- why weren't you here earlier? Where's Percy?" Before Annabeth could respond, the girl's eyes fell on the sword. "Why do you have Riptide?" she asked, slowly.

Annabeth looked at the sword. "Riptide? Percy? Who are-" She started to hyperventilate. Why couldn't she remember anything?

"Annabeth!" the girl interrupted. "I don't know what happened to you, but you need to listen to me, okay?" Annabeth couldn't resist her eyes, her warm, trusting brown eyes.

"Look at me. There you go. Now, I need you to think."

Annabeth did think. She wanted to remember, so badly, but the memories weren't coming. Nothing was coming. Weren't her eyes blue earlier?

"Try to remember what happened. Remember me. Remember Percy, Jason…"

As she started to list names, Annabeth's head exploded in pain again. "Stop!" she begged. But the girl wouldn't stop. As the battle raged on to the side down the hill, her voice seemed to envelope Annabeth. All those names seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember why. Who were these people? What in Hades was happening?

Hades. Why did she think Hades instead of hell?

Hades. Zeus. Greek gods. Big Three. Aphrodite, spiders, Athena, Poseidon, seawater.

Perseus Jackson.

Everything came back in one explosive rush. Her parents and step-brothers, Luke and Thalia, Camp Half-Blood and all her friends, Percy stumbling in one rainy night and drooling. The lightning theft, Polyphemus, Mount St. Helens, the labyrinth, Kronos, Rachel. When the idiot finally kissed her (well, she kissed him), then disappeared for months. _Hera, the godly bit-_.

She remembered everything. It was so much information that she stumbled back and fell. Piper gasped slightly and knelt by her worriedly. "Are- are you okay?" she asked hesitantly.

Annabeth looked back at her and grinned. "Never better."

"Annabeth!" Piper hugged her, then pushed her back. "Where have you been? We've been looking for you for so long! Why couldn't you remember anything?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I… don't know. I can't remember anything after we ate yesterday."

Piper shook her head. "That's a long time, Annabeth. Are you sure- look out!" She dove by Annabeth, who shrunk lower as a tree trunk sailed over their heads. A cyclops bellowed at them in anger, like _how dare you dodge my tree!_

Annabeth got to her feet quickly. "We had better get down there, Piper. We don't have much time right now." Piper nodded, and she followed Annabeth down the hill. Annabeth readjusted her grip on Riptide. There was a growing sense of dread in the back of her mind. Why did she have Riptide in the first place? Why was it down in the cave with her?

She didn't have time to really think about it before the cyclops threw another tree at her. She ducked under it and ran between his legs, slicing behind his knee and doing all she could not to look up.

The cyclops screamed and swatted at her, but his leg buckled under him and he fell, rather like one of the trees he had been throwing. Annabeth planted one foot on his cheek and stabbed Riptide into his face. The monster turned to dust with a _poof_.

Annabeth cut her way through dozens of snake-women and giants, but it seemed like for every monster she killed, two more came up in its place. As she crossed the field, she caught sight of several demigods that she recognized. Clarrise bashing someone's face in, Connor and Travis double-teaming an annoyed cyclops, Drew charm-speaking a snake-lady into falling on her sword. She even recognized several of the Romans; Reyna repeatedly stabbing a hellhound, Dakota taking a mid-battle swig of his koolaid. It took a moment to register that the Romans and Greeks were fighting together, but she didn't have time to fully process the thought.

As she fought, she became aware of how unbalanced Riptide was. It may have worked for someone like Percy, but she was better accustomed to daggers and light-weight swords, not bronze swords that were over two feet long. Her arm was aching, her eyes were stinging from sweat and dust, her throat was scratchy, and her hand stung worse than ever. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to fight with such a heavy weapon.

She heard a loud roar and spun to see a cyclops standing over a scrawny demigod with a helmet covering his curly brown hair. He tried to scramble back, but they all knew he wouldn't be able to get out of reach. The cyclops grinned, his eyes flashing with triumph, and he raised his club.

"No!" Annabeth cried. She sprinted forward and sliced up, putting a gash on his stomach. He stumbled back in surprise, but he didn't look wounded as much as annoyed. He turned on Annabeth and growled menacingly. Annabeth raised Riptide, its tip trembling from the strain she was putting on her arm. She suddenly regretted not listening to Chiron when he told her to become efficient with weapons in both hands.

As the monster took a step forward, someone flew out of nowhere-literally _flew_ \- and kicked it in its single eye. It screamed and swatted at the air, but the demigod easily dodged it and sliced at its face, connecting and slicing off a good chunk of his nose. The cyclops fell to his knees and held his face in his hands, where Annabeth was able to finish it off.

"Jason!" she shouted happily.

"Annabeth!" He landed. "Where have you been? You know what, don't answer that right now. We'll have plenty of time after we beat these losers." He gave her a warm smile before jumping back into the fray.

Annabeth heard someone else call her name and turned to see the demigod who had been on the ground. She immediately recognized him. "Leo? Why are you out here? Shouldn't you be-"

"Back at the bunker or on the ship? Making something?" Leo shrugged. "Maybe. But I felt useless, so I decided, why not?"

"That's why not!" Annabeth pointed to the pile ash that used to be a cyclops. "You could get killed!"

"So could you!" Leo protested. "Let me do something!"

Annabeth shook her head. "I'm not in charge of you. Just don't die, okay?" Leo grinned impishly and dashed off, undoubtedly to invent something that would explode.

Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them. The noise died down as everyone struggled to regain their balance. Annabeth knew immediately what was happening. The cut on her hand, her blood…

Where was Percy?

A deep laugh echoed through the field. It sent a chill up Annabeth;s spine. _No, no, no_.

A huge woman appeared from the east. She towered over even the giants, who knelt. Her skin was pure white, her dress interwoven with blades of grass. Her hair was brown and tangled together like tree roots, covered in dirt. Her eyes were completely green.

She smiled malevolently as a whole host of new monsters filed in behind her. Annabeth's jaw dropped. She hadn't even heard of some of these monsters before, and, considering the extensive research she had done in her time, that was saying something. These were monsters from before her time, before the gods, even. They were ancient, and reeked of power. She could feel it, even from so far away.

They had no chance.

Someone walked next to Annabeth and sighed. "Of course, she would have friends," Hazel said. Annabeth didn't even greet her, and neither did Hazel. They gazed at the new army that had been summoned out of the depths of the earth, and Annabeth felt true fear, the likes of which she had not felt since she and Percy faced Tartarus in, well, Tartarus.

The thought of Tartarus brought back an overwhelming flood of memories that she couldn't deal with at the moment. She tried to shove them to the back of her mind, but not before she thought, _Bob_. She almost started crying, but she needed to stay strong. Gaea was literally standing right in front of her.

Then someone nearer to the front screamed something that sounded like, "Mercy!"

"What?" Hazel muttered. Then a hellhound stepped out in front of Gaea and bowed low. Its snout touched the ground, and something slid off its back and onto the ground.

Gaea knelt, all twenty feet of her, and smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. She sighed, and a deathly silence filled the air as everyone waited for her to say something. Annabeth thought it was strange that she hadn't already. She had thought that Gaea would come in, guns ablazing and immediately start talking, praising herself and telling everyone how they were going to die immediately. You know, the usual stuff.

Instead, she just looked up and said, "Such a shame. Made it through Tartarus just to end up here."

Annabeth's vision blurred. What? No. No, nonononono. No, she couldn't be talking about Percy, could she? Annabeth felt horrible for it, but she hoped it was Nico. He had survived Tartarus once, hadn't he?

All she could see was a shock of messy black hair, but that did nothing to reassure her. Hazel had gasped and put her hand on Annabeth's shoulder, but Annabeth shook it off, because it wasn't Percy. It wasn't. Soon, he was going to pop out of the forest and yell that it was all a trick, he was still alive.

He couldn't be dead. She refused to believe it.

Gaea laughed. "No, dear daughter of Athena. He isn't dead. I wanted you to see that for yourself." And at that, as if rehearsed, the entire army of Gaea came flying at them.


	2. Chapter 2

"Annabeth, come on!" Hazel screamed.

Annabeth looked at her, dazed. _Percy. No, this can't be happening._ Hazel tugged on her arm desperately, but, since Annabeth was bigger, she didn't move. Hazel shouted desperately, but Annabeth didn't hear her.

A second later, a leopard raced up to them. It morphed back into a winded Frank. Annabeth still wasn't used to seeing him like this, all tall and muscular. She still thought of him as that sweet guy who had come for her help when the only way he could get out of Chinese handcuffs was to turn into an iguana. Not that he wasn't still a good guy. He was just a tad bit… scarier.

"What is it, Ha- Annabeth!" Frank said. "Took you long enough! Where in Hades have you been?" He realized what he had said as soon as it came out of his mouth, and he blinked. "No! That's not what I meant! I mean, where have you been the past few hours? 'Cause you've already kinda been in Hades and… uh. Yeah. Where were you?"

Hazel couldn't resist the small smile creeping on her face. "Frank, Annabeth had a bit of amnesia." When Annabeth looked at her, surprised, Hazel added, "Piper told me."

"Amnesia? Again?" Frank asked, then cursed.

"Frank, please stop talking."

"Right."

Hazel took a deep breath. "Okay, I need you to get Annabeth up there, fast."

"Where?" Frank asked. Hazel glared at him, and he ducked his head. "Sorry, no talking."

"Where do you think?" Hazel rolled her eyes. Annabeth was surprised for a second. Normally, Hazel was pretty calm. She wasn't prone to sarcasm much. _I guess this is what she's like when she gets really stressed,_ Annabeth thought. _Like, 'my friends might die and my boyfriend is being an idiot' level stressed._

Frank nodded and morphed back into a leopard. He looked up at Annabeth and nodded. Hazel put her hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "You can do this, Annabeth," she said. "Ignore everyone else. We can take care of it. Just find Percy."

Annabeth finally nodded and climbed onto Frank. For a split-second, she caught Hazel staring at Riptide sadly, as if she knew she'd never see its owner again. Then she caught herself and tried to smile encouragingly.  
Frank took off with a jolt. Annabeth almost fell off his back, but managed to grab onto the hair on his neck and shoulders. Riptide was still in one hand, so it stuck out awkwardly to the side. Annabeth wanted to cap it- if running with scissors was bad, she was sure riding a leopard with a sword was worse- but she couldn't without falling off. If she was Percy, she could have just let it drop and waited for it to reappear in her pocket, but she wasn't sure that it would work that way with her.

Frank dodged through several pairs of monsters and demigods, and Annabeth had to restrain herself from jumping off to help them. She felt like just running past them was cowardly. What was the point of having a sword if you don't use it, right? As Frank ran past, she saw a demigod, no older than fourteen get disarmed by a snake woman with a trident. He lost his balance, and the snake woman ran him through without hesitation.

"No!" Annabeth screamed. "Enough! Frank! Stop!" Either Frank couldn't hear me or he didn't want to hear me. Either way, he didn't slow down. "Fine," Annabeth muttered. She took a deep breath and let go of Frank. She immediately slid off of him. She tried to land on her feet, but the art of dismounting a leopard was something Chiron had never seen fit to add to their training.

Suffice to say, she landed less than gracefully. As soon as her feet touched the ground, her momentum carried her forward, and she tumbled to the ground painfully. She scrambled to her feet and took a moment to reorient herself.

As she did this, she suddenly realized what the implications of what she had done were. Now she had no fast way to get to Percy before Gaea decided that she was tired of waiting. Even if Frank returned for her, which she was almost certain he would, she couldn't get back on, no matter how mad Hazel would get at him. Annabeth wasn't okay with leaving all these demigods behind, even if it meant that Percy would have to take care of himself for a few more minutes.

Annabeth began to sprint toward the side of the field where Gaea waited. She swiped across the back of an empousai and left her for another demigod to finish off.

As she ran toward another giant, she saw Frank out of the corner of her eye, searching for her. She felt guilty, but she angled away from him. She didn't need to have an argument with him right now.

"Wise Girl?"

Annabeth skidded to a stop. _If she just did what I think she did…._

"Come on out, Wise Girl. He doesn't have much longer." Gaea laughed.

"She used Percy's nickname," Annabeth muttered. "She used Percy's nickname! That's it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Gaea is officially worse than Hera."

"Annabeth!"

"Frank." Annabeth sighed. "Look, I just-"

"No time!" Frank sprinted next to her, breathing heavy. "Look, I know that you don't like leaving all these people behind-"

"They're kids, Frank!" Annabeth shouted, still running. "They didn't sign up for this!"

"Yes, they did!" Frank stopped suddenly and grabbed her shoulder.

She spun on him angrily. "What, Frank?"

Frank panted. "Yes, they did," he repeated. "They could have chosen to run. They don't have to fight this battle. They could be on the interstate driving home, or out eating with some of their friends, but they chose to be _here_. They chose to stay and fight. Do you know why?"

Annabeth tried to brush him off, but he stayed in front of her. "Do you know why? Because they know that this- all of this, the camp, their friends, the dryads and fauns-"

"Satyrs," Annabeth interjected.

"Whatever. They know that all of this is worth fighting for. They knew the risks when they chose to stay, and now they're getting the chance to save what they love. Let them do their job, Annabeth, and you do yours."

"Which is?"

"Saving Percy, obviously. He can barely make breakfast without you, let alone fight Gaea." He leaned down a bit and whispered, "Trust me, I've had his pancakes."

Annabeth struggled to keep down the smile that was growing on her face. "Fine, you oversized panda." She turned and began running toward Gaea, leaving an extremely confused Frank. The smile she had been holding down finally spread across her face. _I've always wanted to call him a panda_ , she thought.

Annabeth had to resist the urge to help a Roman fighting a cyclops. She watched him as she ran past. He was probably around her age, and he looked like he had it in hand, but she still had the urge to join in the fight.

Someone barreled into her and knocked her over. She landed on her side, hard, and someone landed on top of her.  
"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" Whoever was on top of her scrambled to get off, but Annabeth stopped.

"Leo? What- what are you doing?"

Leo sat back. "Oh, hey Annabeth!" He was wearing some kind of leather vest and arm guards. Connected to his right hand was a long metal pole, at least as long as his arm. "I, uh… I had to improvise."

Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "With a metal pole?"

Leo stood. "Hey now, don't be hating on my metal pole. It's like a flamethrower, but- much more dangerous."

"It's more dangerous than a flamethrower, but is one?"

"Right." Leo helped her up. "I would explain, but you need to get going, right?"

Seeing Leo in such a weird get-up had taken her mind off of her problems for a second, and that made her feel guilty. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

She made to get up, but Leo held out one hand. "Take this," he said. "In case Percy needs it."

Annabeth took a small piece of ambrosia out of his palm. "Thanks. Be careful, Leo. Don't get yourself killed!"

Leo scoffed. "Ha! Why would I ever do that?" And with that, he returned to his flamethrowing. Annabeth shook her head and started to run. She could see Gaea more clearly now. She looked bored, her dead green eyes half-closed, as if she didn't even need to pretend like she was in any danger. She was lounging back, all ten feet of her, casually swatting away arrows and the occasional demigod. She looked so detached about it, too, like she did this every Friday to relax and couldn't care less.

That thought made Annabeth angry, more angry than she already was, even than she was about the whole "Wise Girl" incident. Gaea was now way above Hera on Annabeth's "Total Jerk" list.

Yes, she had one. Included on said list was Gaea (as before mentioned), Hera (as also before mentioned), Drew (she had heard the stories from Piper), Aphrodite (you need only take a look at Annabeth's love life to understand this one), and the lady who worked at Starbucks (who, for some unknown reason, extremely disliked Annabeth and never gave her the right order).

But now was not the time to think about Starbucks. Now was the time to worry about the monsters that were popping up all around her. There were ones that she hadn't seen for years, like the giant scorpions and stymphalian birds, and ones that she had never heard of, like the double headed dragon that was moving around by biting one head with the other and rolling around, occasionally biting people.

Actually, now that she saw it up close, she remembered something she had read late one night when she couldn't go to sleep. She remembered because it reminded her of an infinity sign. What was it called? An Amphisbaena? That was it.

That wasn't important. What was important was that Annabeth made it to Gaea in time. She ran past the Amphisbaena and headed straight toward Gaea, who was still a couple hundred feet away. Through all the noise and monsters, she couldn't see Annabeth yet, but she soon would.

Suddenly a sharp pain flared in Annabeth's calf. Annabeth's leg buckled and she cried in pain as she hit the ground. She looked down at her leg and saw a snake-like monster with its jaw clamped around her calf. It had two ram-like horns, and was at least five feet long. Its yellow eyes stared Annabeth down as its jaws closed tighter.  
Annabeth grunted and lifted Riptide to strike it, but its tail whipped around and smacked it out of her hand. "No!" she shouted, but it was too late. Riptide was a few feet away, and the stupid monster- a Cerastes, she remembered- had no intention of letting go.

Annabeth looked around desperately and saw a large rock to her right. She stretched and was just barely able to reach it. As soon as her hand wrapped around it, she lifted it and slammed it against the Cerastes' skull. It made a whimpering noise and tightened its grip even further. Any more and it would take off the rest of Annabeth's leg.

She raised the rock one more time and smashed it down with as much energy as she could. There was a dull cracking sound, and the Cerastes went limp. Annabeth gently pried it away from her leg and grimaced at the sight of her leg. There were four deep holes in her leg from the fangs of the monster. They were really deep; she didn't need to look to know that. The entrances were starting to turn slightly green and black.

Annabeth cursed. "The stupid thing was poison!" She moved her leg slightly and bit back a scream. There was no way she would be able to move until it was healed, and there were no demigods around that could help her. Any that were nearby were too busy trying not to get killed. She saw a Roman fighting the Amphisbaena. It spewed liquid fire at the demigod, and she wasn't able to get out of the way in time. She ran, screaming and trying to put out her hair.

Fire. Leo gave her ambrosia!

Well, the ambrosia was supposed to be for Percy, but if Annabeth died, he wouldn't be saved anyway. Annabeth only felt slightly guilty as she unwrapped the ambrosia and bit down on it. Immediately, a warm taste of chocolate filled her mouth.

Ever since she had visited Mrs. Jackson when she was fourteen, before she met Rachel and went into the Labyrinth, ambrosia tasted like Mrs. Jackson's cookies. It was kind of sappy, but that was where she felt most at home, even now. Mrs. Jackson just made her feel so welcome, so loved, as opposed to her step-mother, who never seemed to be able to choke out the words, "I love you." or "How was your day?" She could at least try.

Was it sad that Percy's mother loved her more than her step-mother? Maybe. More than Athena? Annabeth wasn't sure about that one. They both showed it in different ways. Annabeth just happened to prefer Mrs. Jackson's method via chocolate chip cookies.

They also reminded her of Percy, which was never a bad thing. Percy was such a huge part of her life now. She felt like they had been through so much, they deserved to have a normal life. Despite the never-ending ways the gods came up with to postpone that, she still believed- hoped- that it would come someday. She couldn't afford not to.

She couldn't help a sigh as the pain in her leg slowly dissipated and the wounds vanished. She carefully massaged her leg for a few seconds before deciding that she was healed.

She carefully rewrapped what was left of the ambrosia and stood. She bent to grab Riptide, and when she looked back up, she saw Gaea standing as well. "No, no, no," Annabeth muttered. "What are you doing? I'm not there yet!"

Gaea stretched calmly, and Annabeth gritted her teeth in anger. The ancient goddess yawned and looked out over the battlefield. "Well," she said, calmly. "I see that Wise Girl doesn't care for you as much as she said she did, Perseus." A pause. "Oh, don't delude yourself, dear," she continued, as if replying to someone. "If she did love you, she would be here right now, wouldn't she?"

Annabeth wanted to scream that she was here, that she was so close, that if Percy could just hold on for another minute… But she was frozen, unable to move out of pure shock and fear. _She's going to do it. She's going to kill Percy._

"Let's get this over with, then, shall we?" Gaea raised her hand and the earth twisted under her. A huge spear came up out of the ground under her hand as if she were dragging it from Tartarus with sheer force of will. Which, Annabeth guessed, was exactly what she was doing.

It rose to almost eight feet, with a two foot long blade, sharpened and glistening in the dying sunlight. Gaea sighed. "It has been a long time since I wielded this weapon. A weapon worthy of me is hard to find, Perseus. I had to contract my own sons to make this for me, and, would you believe it, there was no discount for being their mother! I had to pay full price for this magnificent spear!" She sounded indignant. "Do you know how expensive this was? Why, I had to- well, that is irrelevant. I don't think dying man would want to hear all the nitty-gritty details."

This finally galvanized Annabeth into action. She took off, and she got near enough in time to hear Percy shout, "Oh, on the contrary, I would love to hear more details! Please, regale me with all your stories! As many as you would like! I'll listen to all of them!"

Gaea looked interested. "Really? You would? Why, not even my own sons are willing to do that." She seemed to mull this over, and Annabeth sped up, desperate to reach them before Gaea decided that it wasn't storytime.

Gaea shook her head. "That's a very tempting offer, but I'm afraid I must turn you down. You see, there are so many things I need to do, and killing you is currently number one on the list, not storytime."

 _Crap. I'm too late._ Annabeth shoved through a group of demigods who were just standing there for some reason. Annabeth wanted to shout at them to help, to do something, but she was already breathing pretty hard from running all the way across the battlefield.

Gaea raised her spear. "My children, are you ready to take back your birthright?" Every single monster on the field shouted in agreement, and the sound was deafening. Annabeth stumbled to a stop and held her hands over her ears.

Gaea smiled evilly. "My warriors, are you ready to destroy Mount Olympus, brick by brick? Are you ready to tear it down stone by stone?" Another deafening cheer. Gaea's phrasing reminded Annabeth of Kronos, when he was making his way to the throne room and defacing every possible monument on his way. She could see where he got his crazy from.

Sadly, Annabeth missed the days when her only problems were Kronos destroying Olympus and Percy. Now, her problems included Gaea destroying Olympus, the camp, the gods, anything and anyone remotely related to them, and taking over the entire world. Not to mention Percy. He was still a problem, just in a much different way.

"Come on, Annabeth," she told herself. "Get it together." She clenched her teeth and ran forward again. She ignored Gaea's rousing speech about birthright and murder and focused on running, on putting one foot in front of the other.

She could only do this for so long, of course. She had to look up when Gaea stopped speaking. She was already almost to Percy, almost to the front, and she could see Percy, lying tied up on the ground, an oozing gash on his forehead and in several other places. She almost cheered up when she saw him, despite the circumstances.

Then Gaea raised the spear, and Annabeth's heart almost stopped. Gaea paused for a second, taking in the moment, reveling in her power, in her new form. Percy's eyes were wide open, full of a fear that Annabeth hadn't seen from him since Tartarus, and not often before that. Gaea noticed this. Her smile didn't reach her eyes.

Then she plunged the spear down toward Percy's chest, and Annabeth knew that she wouldn't be able to reach her in time to save Percy's life.

 **Please know that any reviews absolutely make my day that much better.**

 **All of the monsters that I mentioned in this story are real (well, were actually in mythology), although I may have added a few details here and there... oh well.**

 **Honestly, this story came out of nowhere, and I didn't really know where I was going with it, and I didn't expect anyone to see it, so thank you to whoever does see it and decides that it is worth their time. This does mean, however, that I have no idea how long I'm going to make it, and any updates are going to be kind of sporadic. Apologies.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and thanks again for reading!**


	3. Author's Note

Hey, if anyone cares, I won't be able to continue this story for a while. I don't know when or if I will. I'm sorry if anyone out there wanted to see the ending, but something horrible has happened, and it's going to take a long time to get used to. Again, I'm sorry if anyone cares about this story, but I honestly cannot write right now. Thank you for any support you may have given, and I hope you have to deal with the same things that I have to now.

God bless.


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